The Lady of Slytherin
by Atana
Summary: The first Snips and Spirals story! Professor Britomartis Vox used to be Severus Snape's best friend. And then she left Hogwarts, just when he needed her most...
1. Default Chapter

Hello everyone,  
  
Thank you all for your reviews for "The Lady of Slytherin". It was written by my friend Tess, and I'm doing the illustrations for it (go to my biography page for the link).   
  
"Snips and Spirals" are the nicknames for Severus Snape and his best friend at Hogwarts, Britomartis Vox. Her creators are cooking up all sorts of adventures and pranks for this Slytherin pair -- they will make the Marauders' heads spin! Read "Valentine's Day" for the second story in the Snips and Spirals series! More will be posted soon, along with new illustrations.  
  
Best wishes from Atana Potinija  
  
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"The Lady of Slytherin"   
  
by Lady Tesser   
  
Hogwarts and all characters therein are the creation of one J.K. Rowling, while Britomartis Vox is the creation of Atana and myself. There, that covers everything, right?   
  
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Chapter 1 – At Long Last Home  
  
Britomartis Vox had not seen any of these hallowed grounds since she had left almost twenty years ago.  
  
She should have known this was the first place to go to. When she had finally contacted Albus Dumbledore of her situation, he demanded that she come to the school at once, and he would find a way to help her bring her life back again.  
  
She always thought most of the professors did not care for Slytherins, even after they graduated or left to other schools. But Headmaster Albus Dumbledore loved all pupils of Hogwarts, no matter what house they were part of or where they actually graduated from.  
  
And he was always willing to help former students.  
  
It was a cool summer night in Scotland, the salt spray from the lochs wafted over the cliff walls and into the quad of Hogwarts, scenting the air with a fine mist of salt and cool breezes. Students new and old walked or ran across the quad toward the Great Hall, their black robes fluttering behind them. She knew a school in London whose students wore similar robes. Christ's Hospital, that's right. Only wore them for mid-day meal, though.  
  
Yes, she remembered these grounds ... she remembered crossing them, her head bowed low, gazing at the grasses or snow through her sunglasses, hiding from the world so they would continue to ignore her like they always had ... then blossoming into a young woman with the help of such ladies as Madame Hooch and Professor McGonagall and the Slytherin House Mother Rowena Price; Britomartis' head held high as she plowed through the throngs of students, her ash blonde knee-length hair whipping around her body.  
  
She laid he hand against the cold stone of one of the buildings - a classroom building - feeling the energy of both the school and the stone fill her body. She gazed at her hand ... now beginning to show her age and tapering into long dragon-green lacquered nails. She was no longer that springy young woman full of hope; Life has taken its bites. She now stood on the grounds of her first real home, ash blonde hair now in a chin-length bob and the Gargoyles sunglasses still on her face. No one had seen her eyes since the funeral.  
  
She came as a shy young girl to Hogwarts, her twelve siblings preceding her, only four of them still on campus but they were more concerned with Quidditch and finding boyfriends or girlfriends (Adonia wanted both!), while she - the youngest - went virtually unnoticed. After all, her parents were now grandparents ... of all things ...  
  
Then spending three years here, breaking out of her shyness, trying out and making it on the Quidditch team, laughing and smiling ... given enough courage to face the world by the time her parents transferred her to Beauxbatons for her Fourth-Year because it was cheaper.  
  
But Hogwarts was always her Home.  
  
Did she really think she could leave Hogwarts the same way now? Spend a few terms with her beloved faculty and among hundreds of gifted students, to become alive again?  
  
No, this pain was deeper than being neglected by too-busy parents. Deeper than the loneliness that Miss Price had finally pulled her out of, deeper than even the torment she had seen upperclassman Snape had been through when she attended.  
  
Her other hand unconsciously reached for her dagger in the folds of her traveling robe. The pain was still there, like a dull roar at the bottom of her soul, but at least it was no longer tearing her into shreds every time she breathed.  
  
Headmaster Dumbledore was right. She should have come here first instead of hiding for five years. Just standing in the quad was healing. And Hogwarts was the safest place on this world.  
  
"Martis?"  
  
She turned at the sound of her name. A thin woman in black and green robes hurried across the lawn in the dusk. Her red hair was streaked with gray, but even without the ornate hat, she knew this was one of her favorite teachers.  
  
"Professor McGonagall," Britomartis answered. She realized she was still holding the dagger and she released it, brushing her robe aside as the older woman pulled her into a hug.  
  
"It's Minerva, my dear," she replied, looking over the top of her glasses. "You are among friends now, not just former professors."  
  
"Thank you. I'm sorry for imposing - "  
  
"You aren't, Martis," McGonagall assured her. "We only wish you came to us sooner. The pain from the loss of your family to Death Eaters is too great a load for you carry alone."  
  
"Now I'm told," the woman from Crete commented dryly. "I've brought my familiar."  
  
A snakehead poked out from the folds of her robe, flickering its tongue out at the Professor. Minerva McGonagall nodded and smiled. "This one is new?"  
  
"Yes. Medusa had died while I was carrying my fourth child, and in a fit of pregnancy hormones and advice from darling toddler children, this one ended upon being named 'Snookie-poo'."  
  
McGonagall's smile became broader, as she guided her toward the Great Hall with an arm around the taller woman's waist. "She's welcomed here, especially since you'll be taking over House Mother duties for Slytherin."  
  
"What happened to Miss Price?" Britomartis asked in alarm.  
  
"She decided to retire. As she explained 'I can't keep up with the children anymore, Minerva, I have more arthritis spells on my joints than Carter had liver pills, and it'd be embarrassing if they all fall off at once in front of the children'." She chuckled. "And here you show up; you were always one of Rowena's favorite students, she insisted you had to be House Mother when you arrived."  
  
"House Mother, too?" Britomartis said. "I would have been pleased with only being the school's religious teacher."  
  
McGonagall smiled in her grandmotherly way. "My dear Martis ... Fate is a strange creature, while Coincidences are spiritual puns. You are meant to be here. You contacted us when we decided to establish a student chapel and a Worlds Religions teaching post, now Slytherin needs a House Mother for the girls' dorms. You are meant to be here."  
  
Britomartis was shocked to discover tears were streaming down her face from under her sunglasses. "I'm home again. I'm home again."  
  
"Yes, my dear; you're home at last."  
  
* * *  
  
Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master, took his customary place at the end of the head table in the Great Hall, glaring down the row of tables of students comprising his House of Slytherin. A large section was empty, ready for new house members to be added from the Sorting Ceremony.  
  
Another year, another group of annoying First-Years about to make mistakes.  
  
He was promised a new House Mother for the girls' dorms, which was favorable to him, since he desired as little contact with the students when out-of-class as possible.  
  
Snape brushed his black hair from his mouth with his slender fingers, watching the doors open.  
  
The First-Years were filed in, waiting quietly at the foot of the faculty dais. Behind them, Professor McGonagall entered with a tall, ash-blonde woman wearing sunglasses, a snake wrapped around her shoulders.  
  
No, wait ...  
  
Dumbledore stood, his long white beard falling like snow down his chest. "Good evening, students. I have a few beginning of term announcements to make. One - students must never enter the Forbidden Forest. Students must never enter the third floor rooms for any reason on pain of a most terrible death. I also have a message from Mr. Filch the groundskeeper: that anyone who touches Mrs. Norris will be severely punished and buried in the rose gardens. And I have one more announcement ... Miss Rowena Price has retired as Slytherin House Mother this year - "  
  
The Slytherin students all exhaled in disappointment. A glare from their House Master (Snape himself) shut them up quickly.  
  
Dumbledore raised his hand. " - However, we have a new House Mother for the girls' dorms ... a former Hogwarts student and a Slytherin herself, Professor Britomartis Vox, who will also be the school's High Priestess for the student chapel and the Worlds Religions instructor."  
  
Snape stared at the woman as she bowed her head graciously toward the faculty and then to the students who politely applauded. Yes, make the hair knee-length, slightly younger all over, pre-teen skinny, wearing the uniform of Hogwarts ... this was indeed Miss Britomartis, a Slytherin two years younger than himself and one of the few people who did not hate him.  
  
Memories flooded his mind, memories of those years he was tormented by the Marauders. Lily Evans did not hate him - perhaps felt pity - but Britomartis was the one who treated him like a human being. Both ... seemed to know the other was a loner. While he lashed out, she pulled in, studying in the library. While he had been sucked further into the darkness, she managed to pull herself out.  
  
He had been horrified when she had found him in the library one evening during his Third-Year when everyone was supposed to be at dinner - he had been sobbing, still covered in mud from Sirius Black dragging him through it. He wanted to run from her, but her strong hand held onto his arm and pulled him against her small chest, holding him tightly and stroking his uncombed greasy hair. This First-Year girl, whom he had never talked to or even looked at, just automatically came to his salvation. She had comforted him, saying nothing, but half-humming/half-singing a song he never heard nor could understand, only that he felt ... safe. And perhaps even ... loved.  
  
He pushed that memory aside, only to recall another one during his Fourth- Year, when the Marauders had pulled him bodily into a local creek and shoved his head under water, screaming about needing a bath and dumping harsh lye soap all over his head and suffocating him - suffocating or drowning him, he could not tell.  
  
Then feeling himself being pulled out, someone's robe wiping the soap from his face and using the voice of Gods as she said, "Potter! Black! Lupin! Pettigrew! Bullies and cold-hearted - " The language was ancient, but it carried many threats and brutal truths, many of which he had looked up later and found them to be from the ancient language of Britomartis' native Crete.  
  
He had washed the lye soap out of his face, his eyes burning like hot pokers had been shoved through. Hands helped him wash the soap off. Angry, humiliated, he had slapped them away as he tried not to burst into sobs again. Still, she had remained, eventually helping him up and taking him to the infirmary when he discovered he could not open his eyes at all.  
  
He had been almost blinded. He certainly would have been if she had not stepped in when she did. When he did get his sight back, he went to the library to thank her, but the words could never leave his throat.  
  
Young Severus Snape had to avoid her ... he wanted to be near her, and he could not allow that (and yet they stuck together throughout the three years they knew each other). No one could be close to him. No one would want to. After all, he was a 'slimy greasy git' of a teenager that made girls vomit in his presence.  
  
Had it been nearly twenty years, though?  
  
Professor Snape gazed at her. Still wore the sunglasses. Of course. They had once talked about it while she was helping him in his incantations course (he had a terrible stutter that one year ... he did not want to think about why); she said her sunglasses were a 'shield' between her and the world, she could look at people and they would not know, and they could not read her soul by her eyes. And once he thought about it, he realized his long unwashed and uncombed hair was his own shield. He could hide his face, not see anyone, and become 'invisible'.  
  
But she had blossomed. She never turned to darkness. She became a part of the world. And she had transferred to the French school, leaving him completely and utterly alone his last two years, alone against the Marauders and their sadistic treatments ... He had almost broken down when he had finally joined Hogwarts' staff and learned through the younger sibling of a former Slytherin classmate that Britomartis had returned to Crete to become a priestess to some Goddess and had married. He never knew why he felt such ... disappointment.  
  
Why was she here as both Slytherin House Mother and a professor of Worlds Religions?  
  
He had been remembering and concentrating so much, he had not noticed the Sorting Ceremony had begun and was already on the last student - a little redheaded girl, who nervously sat up on the stool. Snape almost allowed a smirk to escape as he imagined just whispering 'boo' at her and making her jump out of her skin. Perhaps in Potions class.  
  
McGonagall held the hat just inches over the child's head as it blurted out - "Redheaded girl child - yet ANOTHER Weasley?? Let's put it in Gryffindor, too."  
  
The Gryffindors cheered, while Snape studied his own additions. Most of them frowning children, some of them leering, others quiet and brooding like he was at that age.  
  
First-Years. And Britomartis Vox once again. 


	2. Ch 2 Britomartis Vox

Chapter 2 – Britomartis Vox  
  
Dinner was over, and the houses were going back to their respective dorms. Some students went into the library to do some exploration, while others wandered outside for after-dinner walks.  
  
Britomartis grinned as the large hairy man approached her in the Great Hall. "Little Martis!" he cried, picking her up. "Where've ya been, love?"  
  
Britomartis laughed, hugging the man around his large neck. "Rubeus Hagrid - you haven't aged a day! Watch out for Snookie-poo, she doesn't like being hugged like this."  
  
Hagrid placed her back on the ground, his large hand patting the snake's head. "Ah, it's good to see students coming back. Jus' the other day, Madame Hooch and me were talkin' about Quidditch matches from the past - "  
  
Britomartis rolled her eyes behind her sunglasses. "And Madame Hooch had to mention my infamous arse-over-teakettle maneuver involving the tangled mess of myself, the Keeper, and the Beaters from the other team."  
  
Hagrid blushed. "Well, it was a miracle nobody broke anythin'." He smiled again. "C'mon, tell me of what you've been up to since you left us."  
  
Professor Snape appeared between them, his pasty pale face looking up at the large man's face. "Perhaps Professor Vox would discuss such things later ... after she has settled in."  
  
"Oh, of course," Hagrid agreed. He chuckled. "I remember you two running around the place and being teenagers - "  
  
"Mister ... Hagrid," Snape intimated.  
  
"Oh, right." He patted Britomartis' cheek. "See you later, Martis."  
  
"We'll talk more later, Hagrid," she added. Hagrid wandered off and she turned to find Severus Snape already gone. She sighed. "You always were good at vanishing into thin air, weren't you, Snips?"  
  
Britomartis followed her students into the dorm halls and into the House of Slytherin.  
  
Slytherin dorms were the same as she remembered them. Elegantly decorated, but still dark. Several new tapestries lined the walls, very likely a gift from a student's rich parent.  
  
Her new charges gathered around her, the nearly fifty girls that made up the female half of Slytherin House, all of them looking up at her expectantly.  
  
A prefect commander approached her and curtsied politely. "Welcome to Slytherin House girls' dorms, Professor Vox. I am Glynis Ryper."  
  
"Thank you, Glynis. I remember Evan Ryper when I attended here."  
  
"My uncle," Glynis confirmed, a small smile threatening the corners of her mouth.  
  
"Then I expect you'll have a fondness for glass bottles filled with colored liquid as well."  
  
The girl blinked while her classmates snickered. Britomartis smiled. "All right, ladies. I know many of you miss Rowena Price - she was my House Mother when I attended here during the Cretaceous Period and I loved her dearly. I will not alter any of her dorm rules: mainly, be in your rooms by curfew, behave yourselves, no spell-casting except for homework, no broom-flying indoors, and no boys in your rooms. My door is open at all hours - including my office between classes - and you will find me in chapel almost every morning before classes and every evening after classes. If you need help in anything, if you need a sounding board, or simply someone to talk to, I will listen and help. Very likely you are not the first to have problems, and you will certainly not be the last, and please know that I had most of them as well - including being turned into a harpy and a mongoose on two separate occasions."  
  
The girls tittered with giggles.  
  
She held up her snake's head. "This is Snookie-poo, she will be the house 'pet'. If any of you mistreat her, she will attempt to eat you. She does appreciate sacrifices of small white mice with blobs of brown mustard."  
  
Snookie-poo flickered her tongue out at the students. The girls cooed and complimented her beautiful skin and pretty eyes. Snookie-poo half-closed her eyes and accepted the praise of her beauty with much dignity.  
  
"Anything else, Professor Vox?" another student asked.  
  
Britomartis thought about it, then smiled. "Yes. It's all right to smile in my presence, I encourage it. In fact, I recommend laughing. It helps the digestion."  
  
"Yes, ma'am!" several of the girls answered.  
  
"Good. All right, that's all for tonight. I trust the prefects will help the First-Years in their orientation. I must settle in as well. Good night, girls."  
  
"Good night, Professor Vox," all of them chorused.  
  
Britomartis turned from the girls' dorm hallway and entered the common room. Across the hall, she could hear the prefects orientating the First- Year boys in their area.  
  
"Well, well, well," a hollow-sounding voice sneered. "If it isn't Spirals."  
  
Britomartis looked up to see the elegantly dressed Bloody Baron descend from the ceiling. "Baron, it's been ages. How have you been?"  
  
"Same old," the ghost replied in a bored manner. "Children, children, all over the place. I've seen you've grown into a fine woman. Never really get to see any of you gits after you leave here, except Snape and now you, and frankly that boy was boring me to death." He leered. "I expect you to shake things up around here, Britomartis. Perhaps start a scandal involving him and his illicit affairs with dead people."  
  
She giggled, sitting down on one of the couches. "Baron, you are a monster!"  
  
"Thank you. The boy lacks a sense of humor, or at the very least the ability to laugh at accidents. I'm relying on you to make things interesting."  
  
"I'll do my best, sir."  
  
The Bloody Baron vanished through a particularly gory-scened tapestry.  
  
"I trust," a man's husky but bored voice intoned. "That you are adjusting once again?"  
  
She looked up, seeing Snape framed in the doorway, his robes filling up the space around him while his arms crossed over his chest. "Severus Snape. Great Mother, I never thought I would see you again."  
  
He entered the Slytherin common room, his black robe fluttering behind him as he approached her. Britomartis admired his fashion sense - a simple long black coat and trousers, buttoned all the way up the front, plus his robes and still long hair ... he did cut a fine figure as a man. "How so?" he asked.  
  
Her voice became flat. "I expected to be with my family the rest of my life." She patted her snake's head. "You are head of Slytherin House as well as Potions Master ... you've done well, Snips."  
  
He gave her a pained look. "I had no choice, Professor Vox."  
  
"I'm still 'Spirals'," she added softly. "That hasn't changed."  
  
He turned back to the door. "You are a member of faculty and now part of my House; as such, we observe the courtesies pertaining to our positions." He stopped in the doorway, snapping his head around, making his hair fly across his face. "Thank you."  
  
"For what?" she asked.  
  
His hair whipped back around as he left the doorway. "For my Fourth-Year."  
  
It took Britomartis nearly three hours to figure out he had been referring to the incident involving the Marauders, a creek, a gallon jar of lye soap, one robe ruined by said soap, and near-blindness.  
  
Twenty years to thank her over something any truly decent human would have done.  
  
Then it was probably a good thing she never made him buy her a new robe.  
  
* * *  
  
The student chapel was small but lovely.  
  
Stained glass windows, all in geometric and floral patterns, lined three walls, the fourth being the entrance into the chapel. An altar stood before the round glass window at the other end of the building; on this altar were offers of local wildflowers and Scottish thistle, along with a few pebbles and honey cakes for good measure. Benches lined each side of the chapel, ornately carved but simple in design.  
  
"Do you approve?" Albus Dumbledore asked.  
  
Britomartis nodded, allowing Snookie-poo to slip to the floor. "It's beautiful, Headmaster."  
  
He smiled, sitting down on one of the benches. "I'm glad you came back to us, Martis."  
  
She sat next to him. "I am glad I came back." She looked down at her hands. "I had forgotten how much I missed this place, the teachers, the ghosts, Hagrid, even Filch. This place has ... "  
  
"Always been home," he finished for her. "And it always will be, for any student no matter how long ago they attended." He patted the back of her hand with his frail fingers. "There were only two students I ever called my children - you and Severus. It fills me with warmness knowing you two are back here where you belong."  
  
"Why?" she asked.  
  
He smiled sadly. "Children should never be lost. Lost by busy parents or lost by horrendous parents, you two became my own children." He pulled his hand away and gazed at the stained glass window over the altar. "Severus spiraled downward into darkness, though. He finally came back on his own ... much the way you have, having exhausted himself with hiding."  
  
"What happened to him?"  
  
"I'm not at liberty to say. It is his own business to tell you or not." He turned to face her. "I remember you both when you were students here. I remember how you were able to bring light into Slytherin House, helping the others find themselves. That's why I wanted you as Slytherin House Mother when Rowena retired. I want you to help those children - love them, teach them, and don't allow them to fall over into darkness when there's a thread of hope to cling to. Offer them that thread, Britomartis. And if you can help Severus again, it will make it all the better."  
  
She looked down at her hands in her lap. "I think he hates me for leaving."  
  
"No, he never hated you," Dumbledore assured her. "He locked his heart away, never to be seen by mortal eyes ever again." He smiled. "Believe me, he's pleased you're back." The Headmaster got up. "Well, I shall leave you to conduct your morning rituals."  
  
"Thank you for having me here," she stood, hugging him around his thin shoulders.  
  
He hugged her in return. "Welcome home, Martis. Welcome home."  
  
Dumbledore left the chapel, and Britomartis wandered around to each window to admire the art and light.  
  
"Oh, hello," a woman's voice purred. "Britomartis Vox, so good to see you again!"  
  
Britomartis turned to see a stout, dark elderly woman with wild black, gray, and brown hair and wearing a simple brown dress. "Mrs. Norris!" She looked around. "Does Mr. Filch know you're in human form?"  
  
The woman skittered into the room. "Of course not!" She pulled Britomartis into a hug. "I've wanted to hug you since last night, my dear! Good to see old students again." She hugged the tall woman once more.  
  
Britomartis remembered how she had accidentally seen Mrs. Norris transform into her human form one evening when she was going to the larder to get some milk for a sour stomach. She did not expect to see Mrs. Norris the cat transform into a little dark lady and help herself to the milk before Britomartis flicked on the kitchen lights.  
  
So far, no one else knew Mrs. Norris was an animagus.  
  
"Good to see you, too," Britomartis added. "But I must do my morning rituals. We'll talk again some other time, though."  
  
"Absolutely," the woman agreed. "Ta-ta for now!"  
  
She spun around and shifted back into a Maine Coon just as she left the door.  
  
Britomartis smiled, shaking her head. "I always wondered how such a sunny lady could end up with someone like Filch."  
  
She turned to the altar and raised her hands, invoking the Great Mother.  
  
* * * 


	3. Ch 3 Snips and Spirals

Chapter 3 – Snips and Spirals  
  
Professor Severus Snape pulled a very old book with much dust accumulated on it from the bookshelves of his private office. Throwing it on his desk, he sat down and brushed his hair out of his face as he opened it to a latter part of the book.  
  
Pictures stirred in movement as he flipped pages ... school assemblies, dances, Quidditch matches ... until he found what he had been looking for.  
  
His Fifth-Year yearbook lay open, a scene playing out of him at fifteen and Britomartis at thirteen, both walking across the quad toward the library, books in hand. Martis smiles and waves at the camera, while he hides his face behind his hair and books. Martis turns and spins him around by his scarf, causing him to look up and drop his books from his face. She grins and hugs him around the shoulders with one arm, pointing to the camera. He smiles briefly, then turns away and continues on to the library with his face hidden by hair and books again. She pauses, shrugs, then follows him. A snake (Medusa, Snape remembered, and a lovely girl) slithers behind her.  
  
Beneath the moving image, the caption read: '"Snips" and "Spirals" heading to the library for study and plotting. Again.'  
  
Snips and Spirals, nicknames given by their brothers and sisters of Slytherin. Snips, a silly convoluted merging of his last name of 'Snape' and the synonym of 'sever' from his first name. Then there was Spirals, getting her name from the incredible amount of spiral jewelry, spiral- printed clothing, and spiral-designed temporary tattoos she wore. The spirals were more visible and distinctive than the sunglasses.  
  
Tucked into the page fold was another picture, this one after a Slytherin Quidditch victory and Britomartis was still in her uniform, her arms around his shoulders and hugging him amid the large group of their Slytherin brothers and sisters. She kisses his cheek, making him turn bright red in the picture. In the background, Lucius Malfoy sneers at her behavior as he always had.  
  
He flipped a few more pages to the Third-Year pictures, finding Martis' headshot; still wearing sunglasses and had Medusa wrapped around her shoulders, but smiling and being affectionate toward the snake.  
  
Yes, she was his only friend back then. Even Lovely Lily was not as much a friend as Martis had been. Lucius Malfoy was even less in that regard, despite being Slytherin 'brothers to the ends of the Earth'.  
  
The very first day of classes of his Third-Year, Severus was being dragged by his hair through the mud by Sirius Black. The bad part was that Black was riding a broomstick and flying low enough to cover him completely in the thick, black mud outside of the school.  
  
'Like it, Snivellus?' Black crowed, his handsome face contorted by a malicious snarl. 'You're lower than mud, Snivelly!'  
  
'What are you doing to a Slytherin, Gryffie?!' a girl's voice had yelled.  
  
Black had released him, throwing him into the mud. 'Oh, a little girlie trying to rescue the greasy, miserable git! You don't know that even his own house hates him, do ya' little girlie?'  
  
Severus had lifted his head up, wiping mud from his face, seeing a First- Year girl with knee-length ash blonde hair standing her ground as Sirius Black whipped around on his broom and headed straight at her.  
  
The girl gracefully stepped aside and swung her arm out, landing a solid right hook into the thirteen-year-old boy's jaw and knocking him off his broom.  
  
Cussing, Black had stood up and pulled his wand out.  
  
The girl dashed up and kicked it out of his hand. 'If you're going to fight a girl, then at least be man enough to use your fists!'  
  
Black sneered. 'Delighted, girlie.'  
  
His fist struck out at her mouth - she clutched his wrist and slung him bodily over her shoulder, landing him face first in the mud. Tossing his fist at the back of his head, she added, 'Shame on you, you bully! Picking on girls and Slytherins! Don't you have a keeper?'  
  
Black had turned over, groaning in pain. 'Great going, Snivellus, you've got a little girl to fight your fights for you. Congratulations, you wad of virus-snot. Nobody'll come to the wedding.'  
  
Humiliated and dirty, Severus had run off, hearing the girl calling Sirius Black enough bad names to make McGonagall's hair turn completely white.  
  
And then she found him in the library, held him, calmed him ... and finally introducing herself.  
  
'I'm Britomartis Vox, First-Year,' she had said. 'Call me Martis.'  
  
He whispered his own name, 'Severus Snape, Third-Year.'  
  
'And we're Slytherins. Listen, any time that creep gets near you, I'll knock him on his nasty butt. Slytherins stick together, Severus.'  
  
Slytherins stick together.  
  
After that, when not in classes or separate dorms, Snips and Spirals stuck like glue.  
  
It dawned on him with horror that the only times he could ever call happy was when he was with Britomartis Vox - not in potions class, not by himself, not with the Headmaster, not anything else, but when he was within the safe aura of 'Spirals' Vox. She was barely a teenager at the time ...  
  
And it still scared the holy hell out of him.  
  
Severus Snape closed the book and pushed it away, placing his face in his hands and allowing his hair to fall around his face. The Marauders' voices echoed like ghosts through his mind -  
  
'Ugly, greasy git.' 'Girls will never like you!' 'Nobody wants you!' 'Ew! Snivellus' hormones are active!' 'Lock the girls up before he does anything to them!' 'Dis-gus-ting.' 'Lock your own doors, guys ... ' 'Ewwwwwww!'  
  
Why was it him? Why anything at all?  
  
And yet, despite the horrors, there was the soft voice of Martis calming him down, preventing him from casting Unforgivables upon them all ... giving him shreds of dignity ... and touches of love ... and then she left as well ...  
  
Damn it all.  
  
A knock came from the door and Snape sat straight up, pulling a grading book before him. He brushed more hair out of his face and called out, "Enter."  
  
The door creaked open, showing the pale, sneering features of Draco Malfoy. "Professor Snape?"  
  
The Potions Master looked up, mustering more annoyance than he already felt. "What is it?"  
  
"It's about Professor Vox, sir." Draco slipped into the room, shutting the door behind him. "Since she's House Mother, I expect you would know her."  
  
"Get on with it, Malfoy," Snape snarled. "You want to know if she's a Pure Blood - yes, entirely pure, and not by marrying one's sister like your family, either."  
  
Draco Malfoy blinked, then hardened his face in a credible imitation of his father's infamous arrogant sneer. "What did you say?"  
  
"Go away, Malfoy, I am grading and I am not in any type of mood to deal with ... childish foolishness." His dark eyes raised up to meet the cold stare of the twelve-year-old. "Go. Now."  
  
Draco made it a point to slam the door very loudly as he left.  
  
Snape slumped in his chair, allowing his hair to curtain his face.  
  
"Little pissant," he muttered. 


	4. Ch 4 Her Best Advice

Chapter 4 – Her Best Advice  
  
Elizabeth Humphries was a Third-Year Slytherin, and was in trouble yet again.  
  
"Let go of me!" she protested as two prefect girls of the Slytherin dorms frog-marched her down the hall.  
  
"Save that for the House Mother, Humphries," one of the girls barked. "We finally caught you."  
  
"But it wasn't me, you nose-picking - "  
  
One of the girls knocked on Britomartis Vox's door, then opened it. "Ma'am, we caught Elizabeth Humphries casting spells."  
  
"I was not!" the younger girl cried. "And you should know, because you cheated off of Brigid Malloy's tests last year when you can't even spell your own name!"  
  
"You shut up, you little trouble-maker!"  
  
"ENOUGH," Britomartis intoned, the room filling with a bright golden light and the scent of spicy incense.  
  
All three girls became silent as they saw the woman rise from her seat and seem to fill the room, her presence reaching deep within their bodies and squeezing their diaphragms in their guts.  
  
The light faded, but the scent of incense lingered in the air. Britomartis' figure became normal again. "What is this about. Lister?"  
  
The dark-haired girl spoke, "She's the one who took all of our eyebrows."  
  
Britomartis nodded, settling back down at her personal desk. "Yes, I remember. We tore up the dorms looking for them. Even a 'finite incantatum' couldn't restore them."  
  
"Well," the prefect continued. "We did a room-by-room search this evening and found them inside Elizabeth Humphries' wardrobe."  
  
"Miss Humphries?" the House Mother asked.  
  
"It wasn't me!" Elizabeth Humphries struggled out of the girls' grips and fell to the floor in front of Professor Vox. "You can't prove a thing!"  
  
"Who then?" Britomartis asked.  
  
The golden-haired prefect rolled her eyes. "Liar. Could at least tell the truth for once."  
  
Britomartis held up her hand then made motions of dismissal toward the prefect commanders. They shut the door behind them and Elizabeth Humphries stood in terror before the House Mother.  
  
"Oh, relax, child," the House Mother said. "Can't stand to see a girl cower before authority." She patted the couch next to her desk. "Sit down and talk with me."  
  
Elizabeth nervously sat down, her eyes glued to the floor, as she wrung her fingers together.  
  
"Look at me, Elizabeth-honey."  
  
Elizabeth peeked at her through her blue-streaked blonde hair. "Yes, House Mother?"  
  
"I must congratulate you in stealing nearly fifty sets of eyebrows. How did you do it?"  
  
Elizabeth quickly looked down again. She was almost certain Professor Vox's sunglasses had some sort of truth-tell spell in them. Best not to test it.  
  
"I found a paste in the 'Most Potente Potions' book that, when applied, can remove whole sections of hair. I was ... mad at those snobby snakes." She looked up. "I mean, those arrogant twits act like the world owes them favors because they're Pure Bloods and all that garbage. I really wonder why the Sorting Hat put me in this dump with these uppity bints."  
  
Britomartis laughed. Elizabeth was quite surprised at her House Mother's reaction.  
  
"My dear Elizabeth, that's exactly what I thought when I joined Slytherin! I wondered why the Sorting Hat hated me, by putting me in this house with these vain girls and arrogant boys, all of them so very damn proud of their last six generations being Pure Blood, but never mentioning that seventh generation in which the Master of the manor tumbled the dairymaid in the stables - and their branch of the family was from the Muggle dairymaid!" She laughed again. "Even though I came from a so-called 'Pure Blood' family, I've never believed in such nonsense. Reminds me too much of a Muggle-world group called 'Nazis' who believed in 'pure blood' and a 'master race' - and they ended up being the most-hated group in the world. Pure Blood probably means inbreeding has been going on."  
  
"So why are most of the Slytherin students into that stuff?" Elizabeth asked.  
  
Britomartis pursed her lips, then sighed and adjusted her sunglasses. "Because every single one of us comes from really messed up families - families that think reputation and bloodlines and perfection are more important than childhood, love, and compassion."  
  
Elizabeth, usually prone to scoffing at such 'mushy' sentiments, said nothing for a moment. "Then why stick us all together? To encourage the bad stuff?"  
  
"Not intentionally. I really think this is testing us to see if we follow Master Slytherin completely or not, if we fall into darkness or can pull ourselves out. If we find someone worse than us or someone who goes to the darkness willingly, then we can see it for ourselves if that's something we want. Not all Slytherins leave twisted and bitter like Draco Malloy's father and Professor Snape - "  
  
"Some turn out like you," Elizabeth finished.  
  
Britomartis opened then closed her mouth. "Why do you say that?"  
  
"None of these cold-hearted gits would say the words 'love' and 'compassion' without turning it into a dark joke. Since you were once Slytherin and you are warm, you must have turned away from darkness."  
  
Britomartis' lips fell into a straight line. "Yes. Despite the lure of darkness - during and after attending here - I could never give in to it."  
  
Elizabeth sighed and leaned back on the couch. "So what do I do?"  
  
"What do you think your options are?"  
  
"Return their eyebrows. I keep them to teach those bints a lesson in being petty. I flush the lot down the toilets - "  
  
"Nope. Can't get Filch mad at you."  
  
"Right. He'll feed me to Mrs. Norris."  
  
"Bury you in the rose gardens."  
  
"Yes, that." She sat up. "I really want to teach them a lesson."  
  
"And answer for it when it backfires?" the House Mother asked. "They already know."  
  
Elizabeth sighed. "Then I better return them."  
  
"That would be best."  
  
"And find some other way to annoy them."  
  
The House Mother grinned. "Good girl. The trick is to not get caught." She opened her arms. "Now come here and get a hug."  
  
Elizabeth fell into the House Mother's arms, surprised by how strong the woman hugged her and how warm she was. "Am I getting detention for this?"  
  
"No. I think having to deal with the snobs is punishment enough."  
  
Elizabeth smiled and hugged her again.  
  
* * *  
  
The events surrounding Elizabeth Humphries' treatment in relation to her eyebrow stealing and not getting detention spread like wildfire through Slytherin House.  
  
Severus Snape slammed the door to Britomartis Vox's office open, sweeping in with his black robe billowing behind him.  
  
"What is the meaning of this, Vox?!" he snarled.  
  
"Meaning of which particular 'this', Professor?" she asked. "There are many 'this' - "  
  
He pointed his finger in her face. "NOT punishing a student for such - "  
  
Britomartis grabbed his finger and shoved it away, standing up behind her desk and in his face, their noses almost touching. "It was a friendly prank that backfired - "  
  
"And you aren't doing anything about it?" he wheezed.  
  
"I did everything possible about it. As House Mother I spoke with her and had her fix the mistake - the other girls have their eyebrows back."  
  
Severus Snape was in a holy rage, his face almost beet red, his long hair plastered across his face. "How dare you - "  
  
"If I recall correctly," Britomartis interrupted coolly. "The problem was given to me, not you, and I acted in favor of Slytherin House, without the need for humiliation or debasement of the student in trouble. They will behave themselves without us trying to break their spirits." She cupped his chin in her hand, making him stare back into the blackness of her sunglasses. "Understand me, Professor Snape?"  
  
He jerked away, his black eyes cold and hard as they continued to gaze at her. He tried to grasp his steel control again. "I trust this particular problem will no longer occur?"  
  
"No, it won't." She sat back down. The snake raised her head over the edge of the desk, studying Snape.  
  
"I object to your refusal to give detention - "  
  
"Then you set up the detention yourself. I feel there is no need for such action." She folded her hands on her desk as the snake slid up and around her shoulders. "Professor Snape, I refuse to treat our charges as garbage. We had enough of that by the hands of our peers; they have that as well - we don't need to add to it."  
  
Snape gripped the edges of his robe and crossed his arms. "You haven't changed at all."  
  
She smiled sadly. "I have. I just refused to be dragged down by it." She stroked Snookie-poo's head. "I'm sorry I left."  
  
He dropped the pose, raising his hands to brush his hair out of his face and releasing the coldness from his eyes. "It was unavoidable with your parents in control."  
  
"I missed you."  
  
"No you didn't."  
  
"So call me a liar, Snips."  
  
A small smirk appeared at one corner of his mouth. "I can't believe I miss hearing you call me that, Spirals."  
  
She smiled, which was quickly becoming infectious throughout the room. "Weren't we a pair, though? The quietest troublemakers of Hogwarts." She giggled. "Hagrid almost caught us going up to our little conversation room. Thought we were doing biological things to each other."  
  
"The man has a dirty mind; you were only twelve." A small smile broke.  
  
"And you were fourteen. I remember your crush on Sonia 'Take-Advantage-of- Everyone' Stellamaris."  
  
The smile faded. "I was stupid."  
  
"No, you were led on. I made sure to give her an eyeful of bat dung during a class - it was a complete accident. Really it was. Honest."  
  
A chuckle gurgled in his throat. "Spirals was such an accident-prone type."  
  
"Oh yes," she agreed in phony innocence. "I was such a klutz, people were always accidentally being swatted by my broom or getting my potions on their faces or on the end of a faulty wand."  
  
"I missed those times."  
  
She got up and rounded the desk next to him. "I'm sorry I wasn't here to continue them." She drew her arms around his shoulders, squeezing him.  
  
He reached up, clutching her arm with his slender fingers, and lowered his head as he felt the familiar and warm energies of his Martis fill his body. Parts of him fought and seizured against the surge of unconditional love and compassion, but other parts devoured and clung to the offering of his only childhood friend.  
  
'Oh, God, oh, God ... I missed you so much ... You're going to hate me for carrying on like this, but, dammit, I missed you more than anything else in my whole useless life ... '  
  
"Oh, dear," she murmured, picking up the end of her robe and wiping the tears from his face as she did twenty years ago. "I'm afraid we're both crying this time."  
  
The two friends sat and talked for most of the evening.  
  
â¢ * * 


	5. Ch 5 The Chamber Reopened

Chapter 5 – The Chamber Reopened  
  
The Chamber of Secrets had been opened, and Mrs. Norris was the first victim.  
  
"The what?" Britomartis asked later on that night as she and Snape returned to the Slytherin dorms. She deposited Snookie-poo on the couch, who immediately slithered off to find some dinner of her own.  
  
"The Chamber of Secrets," he repeated, his eyes darting nervously around the common room. He gripped her arm. "Not in here."  
  
He looked around, his hair whipping around his face, then pulled her out of the dorms and dashed down the halls, black and purple robes billowing behind them as they left the dorm building and headed for the classroom hall next door. Climbing up several flights of stairs, many of them narrow spiral staircases, both squeezed through the cubbyhole they had done when teenagers and entered the small room with the stained glass roof.  
  
He lit the cobwebbed lantern with his wand, the round room filling with soft light.  
  
"What is going on, Severus?" she asked as she settled on the floor.  
  
"Fifty years ago," he began. "Something happened at the school involving the Chamber of Secrets ... "  
  
After a half-hour of listening, Britomartis was feeling quite nervous. "I never knew what kind of monster our house founder was."  
  
Snape scooted closer to her, making sure her eyes were locked to his through her sunglasses. "There's much darkness here, Martis. Sleeping, quiet, but there is darkness."  
  
She nodded. "It can be dealt with. Nothing is ever hopeless."  
  
"You don't know what you're saying."  
  
She looked up at him, radiating pain. "I do know."  
  
* * *  
  
Draco Malfoy did not forgive easily.  
  
In fact, he could never forgive period.  
  
Of course, an owl was immediately sent out with the message that Professor Snape had made an insinuation about the great Malfoy family and had refused to answer any questions in relation to the new Slytherin House Mother.  
  
"Well," he snapped toward one of the more intelligent members of his goon- squad. "What have you found out?"  
  
The teenager pushed his glasses up on his nose. "Well, I was only able to look up her school records, sir."  
  
Draco plopped onto a couch. "Is she really Pure Blood?"  
  
"Yes, sir, the two great wizard families of Crete, actually: the Vox and Atoka lines. She entered Hogwarts twenty-two years ago and had left after her Third-Year to attend Beauxbatons for the rest of her education."  
  
"The sissy school?" Draco sneered. "And she's teaching us?" He snorted. "What did she do here at Hogwarts?"  
  
"Showed talent in elemental magics; was on the Slytherin Quidditch team as a Beater - "  
  
"Really." Draco narrowed his eyes. "Used to play Quidditch, too. Yes, I think there's a reason for me to join the team this year. What else?"  
  
The goon smiled nervously. "According to my sources, it appears she and Professor Snape had ... dated."  
  
"What? Who told you that?"  
  
"Mr. Hagrid, sir."  
  
"That idiotic half-giant? No. Since she was thirteen when she last attended, he probably tried to enchant her or something." Draco chuckled grimly. "Well, Professor, I know your secret. Britomartis Vox will not be held under your enchantments this time, I'll make sure of it."  
  
The goon edged away as Draco Malfoy giggled.  
  
* * *  
  
Several days had passed. Britomartis was now considered a fixture of the school, a trusted House Mother, and a teacher that demanded hard work from her pupils. Whether they survived or not (it seemed a few had backfires of spells when they tried to cheat on writing essays).  
  
"Good morning, Sir Nicholas," Britomartis greeted the nearly-headless ghost.  
  
"Good morning, Miss Vox!" he answered as he passed her in the hall.  
  
"Good morning, Professor Vox," several students from her class called.  
  
"Good morning," she answered. "How are you all this morning?"  
  
"Fine!"  
  
"Miss Granger," Britomartis hailed.  
  
Hermione paused and turned to see the Worlds Religions teacher approach her. "Yes, Professor?"  
  
Both walked in the direction the student was heading. "I must speak to you about that exchange between you and Mr. Malfoy in my class earlier today."  
  
"Oh."  
  
Britomartis waited a few heartbeats before saying, "How much of a pain in the butt has he been toward you?"  
  
"It's nothing, Professor."  
  
"Hermione ... I will not tolerate bullying in my classes, especially by my own house students."  
  
The girl continued walking to her class, her robe swishing around her ankles. "Nothing is wrong. I can handle it."  
  
She had to let her go as Hermione entered a classroom.  
  
Britomartis sighed. "Everyone is so damned British."  
  
* * *  
  
Lucius Malfoy entered the common room of Slytherin House. "SNAPE!"  
  
The room echoed with his yell. Poking one of the couches with his cane, he snorted. "Disgusting. SNAPE!"  
  
A woman appeared from one of the hallways. "Professor Snape is in classes right now ... Great Mother, Lucius Malfoy."  
  
He peered at her, trying to place the ash-blonde hair, Goddess fetishes, snake around the shoulders, and the sunglasses. "Britomartis Vox," he sneered. "You return to Hogwarts to finish your education at your old age."  
  
"No, I am a professor. What business do you have in Slytherin House again? Picking on more children or looking for someone more lowly than yourself? I should warn you, we have higher standards than when you were a miserable young git."  
  
A smirk of coldness passed his lips. "Ever the lowbrow wit, Spirals."  
  
Britomartis crossed her arms. Snookie-poo raised her body in agitation. "What do you want with Severus?"  
  
"None of your business. Slytherin ... interests are at heart."  
  
"Didn't know you had one, Lucy. And for your own information, I am Slytherin House Mother."  
  
He raised a finely arched eyebrow. "Indeed? Well then, I suppose we must tolerate each other's company until Snape returns from his classes."  
  
"Oh, joy," Britomartis stated flatly. "Is this the Pink Bows Incident all over again?"  
  
Lucius Malloy's face turned darker than usual. "You bring that wand out, and I will strangle you with that ugly snake."  
  
"Thought you'd make someone else do it - it's manual labor." She smiled in a way that annoyed him to no end. "How do you like your tea?" 


	6. Ch 6 Little Dragon

Ch. 6 – Little Dragon  
  
Draco made sure no one saw him dance in joy. He had wonderful, delightful, fantastic news ... and he knew there was someone who needed to hear it.  
  
He knocked on the door of the House Mother's room and straightened his robe as he waited for her to answer.  
  
Britomartis Vox appeared, filling the doorway with her beautiful figure and womanly curves.  
  
"Professor Vox, I am pleased to tell you that I - Draco Malfoy - am the Slytherin Quidditch team's new Seeker."  
  
Britomartis adjusted her sunglasses. "Congratulations, Mr. Malfoy. I'm sure Madame Hooch saw a lot of talent in you."  
  
"Madame Hooch?" he asked. "She had nothing to do with it. Professor Snape approved of my placement on the team."  
  
She stared at him. He wondered what she was looking at - his fine blonde hair, his neatly pressed new robes, or the sleek Nimbus 2001 in his hand.  
  
"He what?"  
  
Draco smirked. "He really had no choice. My father had a nice talking to him, gave a gift of new brooms and new uniforms, and offered me as a Seeker." He smiled sweetly with a touch of arsenic around the edges. "As one of Slytherin House's former Quidditch players, I thought you would like to know."  
  
Her mouth fell into a thinly-veiled frown. "I tried out and made it on the team due to talent and hard work, Draco. My parents never bought me my position."  
  
Draco's smile faded. "You call yourself a Slytherin."  
  
"I call myself honorable, young Malfoy." She leaned close. He could almost see the outline of her eyes through the sunglasses. "Being honest isn't limited to the Hufflepuff House - try it, you might like it. If you don't break out in a rash."  
  
Draco said nothing as he turned around and stalked back to the boys' dorms.  
  
* * *  
  
Britomartis slammed open the door of Severus Snape's office. "WHAT IN AVERNUS DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING BY PUTTING MALFOY ON THE QUIDDITCH TEAM???"  
  
Snape turned from the stained glass window of his packrat-designed office. "I had no choice, Spirals. Lucius forced me."  
  
"How could he force you?" she ranted. "You're a grown man! He needs a kick in the goolies!"  
  
Severus rushed to her, holding her face in his hands. "Martis, don't do this. He ... knows things that I have no control over. Letting Draco on the team is a very small price to pay."  
  
She looked up at him, her sunglasses tinting his eyes to pitch black. Even through the barrier, she could see horrors passing his eyes in his memories.  
  
"Great Mother ... Severus ... "  
  
"Don't ask," he begged, his voice barely above a whisper. "Don't ask me. I can't taint you."  
  
"Severus, please."  
  
"No."  
  
They gazed at each other, saying nothing, his hands holding her face.  
  
Britomartis was surprised when Severus' lips descended on hers, kissing her harshly in unaccustomed affection. She brought her arms around his neck, pulling him closer. She could feel the snake slip over her shoulder and around him as well, squeezing them together.  
  
Severus snapped back, his eyes wide in shock and horror. He pulled away, reaching back to his desk to support himself. "Go," he ordered, his voice tinged with panic. "Go, Professor Vox. Don't come in here again."  
  
"Severus - "  
  
"Don't argue with me, woman! Leave me!"  
  
Britomartis inhaled deeply, then picked up Snookie-poo and left his office in wordless silence.  
  
* * *  
  
Another attack. Another petrified victim.  
  
Gilderoy Lockhart - the alleged Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor (aka to Slytherin House as 'Goldilocks Lunkhead') - had gathered students together in one of the lecture halls, proclaiming that the student body needed to protect themselves from the attacker.  
  
Britomartis Vox watched the girl-children swoon and sigh as the man twirled about the platform, releasing his cape and sending it into the arms of a couple of his fangirls.  
  
"What a pooftah," she sighed in disgust. Snookie-poo agreed with a quiet hiss. "I never heard of this piece of work until one of my sisters sent me one of his books for Christmas. From the picture, I thought it was a hairdressing guide."  
  
Severus Snape almost cracked a smile. "Ever brutally honest, Professor Vox."  
  
"Sorry, Professor Snape, but something about him screams 'cotton candy'."  
  
"His hair."  
  
She smirked. "Not everyone can have long, dark, gorgeous hair, Severus."  
  
He returned the smirk. "Martis - "  
  
"And assisting me is your own Professor Snape," Lockhart announced.  
  
Severus' expression melted, returning to a bored frown, his whole body taking on the pose of Slytherin arrogance. He handed Britomartis his own robe and ascended the steps of the platform in his black buttoned-up coat and trousers. He stood on the end, sneering with every ounce of Slytherin pride and disregard for foppish theatrics.  
  
"Don't worry," Lockhart lilted in fancy bravado to the students. "I will return your Potions Master to you when I'm through with him."  
  
Both men met at the center of the platform formally, whipping their wands up to their faces and bowing. Spinning around (Severus' hair flying around his face - Britomartis noted at least two of the Slytherin upper-class girls sighing), the men paced off down the platform to assume their positions.  
  
Both turned, arms raised, wands ready. Several females in the crowd moaned in awe; whether for Lunkhead or the Potions Master, Britomartis could not tell.  
  
Lockhart began the count, "One ... Two ... Three ... "  
  
Professor Snape attacked first: "EXPELLIARMUS!"  
  
Gilderoy Lockhart was knocked off his feet by the force blast, landing on his backend at the end of the platform.  
  
Slytherins cheered for their House Master. Britomartis nodded in approval.  
  
Lockhart picked himself up, grinning, slightly battered. "There, you see. I was just showing you that I could have stopped Professor Snape any time I wanted to - "  
  
Severus' cool detachment started to break. "Perhaps," the Potions Master intoned with all the lording a Slytherin could muster. "You should teach them blocking, first?"  
  
He raised an eyebrow and gave a quick, smarmy smile.  
  
"Right," Lockhart acknowledged, completely oblivious to the insult.  
  
Two students were selected - Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter - and both climbed up on the platform. Draco made it a point to turn around and wink at Britomartis before going to the center of the walkway.  
  
Severus raised an eyebrow. "What was that about?"  
  
She shook her head, stroking Snookie-poo. "He had the nerve to be offended when I told him to be honest for once in relation to his Quidditch buy- out."  
  
"He's a Malfoy; 'honest' is not in the family-approved dictionary. Probably would have an allergic reaction to the concept."  
  
She giggled softly. "That's the old Snips I know."  
  
The twelve-year-olds met in the middle, raised their wands and bowed formally, then paced back, assuming the same formal stances as the teachers.  
  
"One ... Two ... "  
  
"EXPELLIARMUS!" Draco shouted.  
  
Harry Potter was slammed through the air, landing on the edge of the platform. Slytherins cheered again. Severus Snape applauded politely while Britomartis made an unladylike sound of displeasure. "No wonder we're called 'nasty little snakes'; I'd forgotten the dirty trick brigade."  
  
Harry returned as good as he got: "RICTUS SEMPRA!"  
  
Draco spun end over end to his end of the stage, landing flat on his skinny butt in front of Britomartis. He blushed a deep red just as Snape picked him up by the scruff of his neck and harshly set him up on his feet. Britomartis nodded her head a quarter of an inch while Snookie-poo flickered her tongue out in excitement.  
  
Inspired, Draco swung his wand around: "SERPENTSAUCIER!"  
  
A snake materialized and flew through the air toward Harry. The Gryffindor student got up, staring intensely at the snake as it slithered around.  
  
Britomartis gritted her teeth. That was a cobra! The little snot Malfoy was turning a training exercise into a death match just to get her attention!  
  
"I'll take care of it, Mr. Potter - " Severus began as he climbed on stage.  
  
"No, I will," Lockhart interrupted. Severus yielded and allowed the DADA instructor to do so.  
  
The cobra was flipped up into the air, landing on the platform with a thud and much more irritated than it originally was, threatening to lunge into the crowd of students.  
  
"Martis," Severus said. "Do something!"  
  
"What?" she asked. "I don't speak Parsel-tongue!"  
  
And suddenly, both heard the language itself being spoken. They looked up, seeing young Harry Potter staring transfixed at the snake as it threatened one student, the rare language spouting from his mouth.  
  
Britomartis glanced at her familiar, seeing Snookie-poo enraptured by the voice, stirring in hypnotic trance.  
  
"'The heir of Slytherin shall speak Parsel-tongue - '  
  
He ceased the language. Severus rushed on the platform and called a burning spell to be rid of the cobra, burning it to ashes.  
  
Harry looked around at his fellow students. "What?" he asked.  
  
Britomartis Vox and Severus Snape's gazes made him turn away, leaving the group with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger.  
  
"Great Mother," Britomartis whispered. "Could it be?"  
  
Severus swallowed. "Pray for the school that he is not. That boy's more potentially dangerous than anybody knows."  
  
â€¢ * * 


	7. Ch 7 House Rivalries

Chapter 7 – House Rivalries  
  
Whispers filled the Great Hall during dinner. Most of them concerning the afternoon's DADA instruction, others with general gossip.  
  
Save a growing number of students whispering frantically and looking up at the head table, in the direction of Professors Snape and Vox who were seated together.  
  
Finally, a lull fell over the majority of the students' conversations, and young Neville Longbottom accidentally blurted out, "What's a 'necrophile' and why is Professor Snape one?"  
  
A hush descended upon the gathered body, all heads turning toward Severus Snape, including Dumbledore's and McGonagall's. Lockhart smirked good- naturally. Severus' fingers went to twirling the ends of his hair as he stared intently back at the loudmouth.  
  
Slytherins glared at Neville, who immediately slid down in his seat.  
  
Britomartis admired the class with which Severus remarked: "It is not nice to start rumors."  
  
She chuckled. "Have you looked in a mirror lately, Snips? Most people would assume - "  
  
"Shut up, Spirals."  
  
Dumbledore returned to his meal as if nothing had occurred, while Professor McGonagall tapped her glass. "Go on; back to dinner, students."  
  
Conversations resumed. Severus glowered. Britomartis kept her eye on the room in general. Down among the tables, Draco nodded to his goons Crabbe and Goyle and all three got up from their dinner, leaving the Great Hall.  
  
* * *  
  
Screams tore through the late evening silence.  
  
Britomartis pulled on a spiral-printed cloak over her nightgown, running out of her room and down the halls of Slytherin dorms, out to the common room. She met Professor Snape on the stairs leaving the tower, himself clad in a long gray nightshirt and his hair a complete mess.  
  
"What is it?" she gasped as she caught up with him.  
  
"I don't know," he replied. "But it's coming from the Quidditch field."  
  
Both dashed down the stairs and outside into the chill night air, their breaths streaming out in thick clouds. Racing across the stone walkways and down the dying green grasses to the field, both saw a bonfire burning brightly just outside the Gryffindor stands.  
  
"Oh, Great Mother!" Britomartis breathed.  
  
Both made out figures as they approached - Neville Longbottom from Gryffindor gagged and tied to a spit and being turned over the bonfire by Crabbe and Goyle. Nearby, Draco Malfoy grinned in malicious glee.  
  
"What is the MEANING of this?!?!" Severus Snape roared.  
  
Crabbe and Goyle paused in turning the Gryffindor student, terrified by their House master's rage.  
  
Draco turned, completely uncowed by the Potions Master. "Shouldn't you be thanking me, Professor?" His grin turned cold. "I'm avenging the libel against you, isn't this enough?"  
  
"No!" Snape picked Draco up by the front of his robe and tie. "I did not permit you to avenge anything in my favor or name! Release that or I'll - "  
  
"You'll what?" Draco asked, all arrogance coming to the fore. "Suspend me from the Quidditch match tomorrow? Wouldn't my father object to that?"  
  
Severus trembled in anger, putting the boy down.  
  
Britomartis stepped forward. "Fifty points from Slytherin for roasting a student."  
  
"What?" Draco exclaimed.  
  
"Each," she added firmly. "An additional ten points off each for being out after curfew. And detention."  
  
Crabbe and Goyle shot nasty looks at Draco's back as they untied and ungagged Neville, shoving him to the ground beside the bonfire. Both moved to leave, but she drew her wand out. "Put out the fire. You, too, Mr. Malfoy."  
  
A wounded expression crossed Draco's face. "Work?"  
  
"Now," she stated without a crack of hesitation.  
  
"Know any fire killing spells?" he asked his goons.  
  
Both shook their heads as the three boys began to kick and shovel dirt over the bonfire.  
  
It took nearly a half hour to kill the flames, Britomartis and Severus watching over them while Neville shivered in his teddy-bear-print pajamas.  
  
Britomartis pulled her cloak off and wrapped it around the shivering boy; Draco paused long enough to admire her amethyst purple gown as she rubbed her shoulders.  
  
"I'm taking Mr. Longbottom back to Gryffindor," she told the House Master. "Just take those three miserable gits back to their dorm rooms when they finish."  
  
Severus nodded. "Shall I give them their detentions?"  
  
"I will," she assured them. "I'm not letting that little Nazi threaten you with Lucy's connections."  
  
Despite his anger, Severus managed a smile at Lucius Malfoy's informal nickname given by Martis back during her time at Hogwarts.  
  
An hour later, after explaining what had occurred on the Quidditch field, Minerva McGonagall accepted the shivering Neville back into her dorms.  
  
"We didn't hear any screams," the older woman commented.  
  
Britomartis raised an eyebrow. "But Professor Snape and I did."  
  
"From what you described, Mr. Longbottom's screams would have woken up everyone in the school." McGonagall scratched the side of her thin nose. "I suspect Mr. Malfoy may be testing his immunity with you and Professor Snape."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Who's to know? I suggest you get back to the dorms and get some sleep. And please watch out for the attacker."  
  
Britomartis nodded. "Of course." She got up from the couch in McGonagall's private rooms. "Minerva?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Is Harry Potter the heir of Master Slytherin?"  
  
The grandmotherly woman smiled nervously. "We do not believe he is behind the attacks." She paused, searching for the right words. "And Professor Dumbledore does not believe Mr. Potter is the heir, even with the knowledge of Parsel-tongue."  
  
"And what do you believe?"  
  
"I am remaining neutral on that matter until undeniable proof is brought forward. However ... I must admit my uneasiness."  
  
"I understand."  
  
"Please don't treat him any differently."  
  
"I won't ... Snookie-poo likes him. Good night."  
  
"Good night."  
  
* * *  
  
Severus Snape sat quietly in the common room, trying to cool his temper down and control the shaking he had felt since finding the bonfire.  
  
Damned children.  
  
The door opened and he looked up to see Britomartis enter, her spiral cloak draped over a shoulder. "That Longbottom child taken care of?"  
  
"Yes," she answered quietly as she settled on the couch next to him. "Had a talk with Minerva about it, all is well on that end. Did Draco give you any lip when you got back here?"  
  
"No." He reached across and clutched her hand in his. "I thought ... I thought I had let that go."  
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"My Sixth-Year. The Marauders did the same damn thing to me - tied me up and threatened to roast me. Miss Price was the one who broke it up."  
  
"Oh, Great Mother, I'm so sorry I wasn't here - "  
  
He shrugged coldly. "It wasn't as bad as the Lake Incident."  
  
"Lake Incident?"  
  
He told her - the day after she left, the Marauders had humiliated him in front of the whole school by flipping him over and exposing him to the entire student body. He told her of how he ran into the Forbidden forest, hoping to be killed by one of the dark beasts in the woods. Of how Dumbledore had led a search party to find him, of his own demand of death, of the old Headmaster listening to him for once and accepting him as his own son. And his father's beating when he found out, followed by Sirius Black's physical and verbal abuse in the halls, breaking his nose in the end.  
  
All the while, he watched as tears streamed down her cheeks from under her sunglasses.  
  
"Where is Black?" she seethed, her hands clutching the edges of her cloak and making strangling motions. "Potter can't answer for it, but where's Black?"  
  
"In Azkaban," he replied quietly.  
  
"Damn," she breathed. "I was hoping to strangle him with his damned floppy ears myself."  
  
Severus heard the genuine rage and pain in her voice - rage for his pain. The thought that someone would care like that filled him with warmth and tears.  
  
"It was long ago, Martis," he reminded her. Hesitantly, he slid his arms around her, laying his head on her shoulder. "You know ... all the time we've been together, I never hugged you. It's ... calming."  
  
Her own arms encircled him. "All you had to do was ask." She kissed his forehead. "We better stop this before a student comes through here."  
  
Severus raised his head, kissing Britomartis again, this time more softly.  
  
Neither wanted it to end, but eventually they pulled away, going back to their own rooms.  
  
And there was quiet the rest of the night.  
  
* * * 


	8. Ch 8 Quidditch, Fluffy, and Other Horror...

Chapter 8 – Quidditch, Fluffy, and other Horrors  
  
The Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor was slated for the next day.  
  
But, Draco Malfoy had his detention to serve.  
  
Being pulled bodily out of bed by Professor Vox at five in the morning (his goons being held by the scruffs of the necks by Professor Snape), she frog- marched him to the third floor where Hagrid was waiting outside the main entry with Mr. Filch. Hagrid was holding a large bottle and a couple of scrub brushes.  
  
"Good mornin', Martis," Hagrid greeted her. "And Professor Snape. Malfoy - Crabbe - Goyle. We've got a bit of work on our hands. Thanks for volunteering."  
  
"Community service is important," Britomartis replied cheerily. "Right, Mr. Malfoy?"  
  
Draco muttered something indistinct, most of it involving bad words.  
  
Mr. Filch sneered. "Do them a world of good to jus' be hung up by their thumbs in the dungeons."  
  
"I miss the screaming, too," Professor Snape added. "Used to help me concentrate on grading. Remember the higher pitch they would reach when the rats found their little fingers?"  
  
Crabbe and Goyle began to tremble. Snape bounced them once. "Accept your punishments like Slytherins. Professor Vox and I discussed it and we felt your detentions should be done separately." He manipulated them around to look up into his face, his nostrils flaring. "Between the two of you, you don't have enough toothbrushes to clean all the bathrooms I'm going to make you scrub - fresh ones will be supplied as needed, starting with your own." He dragged them off as they whimpered.  
  
Draco turned to look at Hagrid, Mr. Filch, and Professor Vox. "And what are you going to do with me?"  
  
Hagrid smiled. "Why, you're helpin' me give Fluffy his flea dip."  
  
"Fluffy?" Draco repeated. "Who's Fluffy? Sounds like a yippy little lapdog."  
  
Hagrid chuckled. "Oh, Fluffy thinks he's lapdog, he likes a good belly rub." Mr. Filch opened the door to the third floor. "But I do need help washing him."  
  
The door opened, and the group entered.  
  
Fluffy turned out to be a nine ton, three-headed watchdog with really big teeth. Really ... big teeth. And bad breath.  
  
Draco immediately fainted.  
  
Mr. Filch looked at the passed-out boy on the floor. "Pansy."  
  
* * *  
  
Draco Malfoy entered the Slytherin common room, his clothes wet and smelling like flea dip and wet dog. His usually neatly combed blonde hair was hanging down his face like a half-grown Cousin Itt.  
  
He approached Britomartis who was helping straighten the hemline of one of the girl's robes.  
  
"'Fluffy' tried to eat my head."  
  
"That explains your coiffure."  
  
"I hate you, Professor Vox."  
  
She looked up at him, smiling, her sunglasses reflecting his image back to him. "Good - now I shall sleep better at night." She waved her hand in front of her face. "Clean up, will you? The match is in two hours."  
  
* * *  
  
The Slytherin House members gathered in the common room, their green and white scarves contrasting with their black robes.  
  
Britomartis was ready as well. Clad in her own turquoise gown, this was overlaid with a tweed cloak in purple with green spirals scattered across the material. Her own green and white Slytherin scarf from her childhood wrapped around her neck, plus her hat (arriving that morning by owl) - purple, with a wide cuffed brim decorated with snakes, spirals, and Goddess figure, ending at a slouched point, with a sheer veil falling over her shoulders.  
  
"Are we ready?" she called to the assembled students.  
  
"Yes, ma'am!" proclaimed one of the male prefect commanders. "We have fake blood, prop broken bones, and our lawyers' numbers on speed owl! Any of them touch us, and they'll think we've been murdered!"  
  
Crabbe spoke up, "I've been practicing my pitiful moans of pain!"  
  
She laughed. "That's my Slytherin children!"  
  
"Wait!" one of the female prefect commanders stated as Professor Snape entered the common room. "We had our monthly drawing and the winners of Spending a Night with Professor Snape Sweepstakes is the entire class of Seventh-Year girls!"  
  
The students applauded while Britomartis blinked in confusion.  
  
Snape sneered in humorlessness. "I trust this lot won't be like last year's - a pack of bumbling virgins who have no idea what they're doing - "  
  
The girls all screamed in shock, while the guys snickered and made bowing motions to their House Master.  
  
Severus Snape smirked, winking at Britomartis. "Now that you've had your crude joke at my expense this month, may we get to the field?"  
  
"Yes, Professor!" the students replied, all dashing out of the common room and down the stairs.  
  
Britomartis picked Snookie-poo up and draped her around her shoulders. "What was that all about?"  
  
He sighed, pulling his gray tweed cloak around his body as they left the common room. "A running gag for almost ten years. The children delight in having false 'drawings' and presenting me with certain members of the house to do with as I please. Last month they offered Twelvetrees as a blood sacrifice."  
  
She giggled as they left the building and into the cold, sunny outside. "How many times have they pulled the 'spending-the-night' gag?"  
  
"At least twice a year. Usually the Seventh-Years. Too young, too inexperienced, too giggly." He turned to her, his black eyes glistening. It seemed he wanted to say something, but had left the sentiment unsaid.  
  
She returned the shot as they reached the stands of the Quidditch field. "So, you prefer older, experienced Goddesses, Snips?"  
  
"Who has time to think about such nonsense?" he asked plainly, allowing her to climb the faculty stand first. "As I recall, Spirals, we were both so concerned over schoolwork that we did not attend any of the school dances."  
  
"You were concerned over schoolwork, Severus," she replied, continuing to climb stairs. "I was concerned with the fact that I could not bring Medusa with me."  
  
"It wasn't because I was concerned with schoolwork," he replied politely as he climbed. "It was due to the fact the Marauders were there."  
  
She snorted. "We had a fun time, anyway. No schoolwork done, but we did have a time flying brooms over the Quidditch field." She sighed, pausing at the entrance to the bleachers. "You really were graceful when no one was watching. I always thought you would have been good on the Quidditch team."  
  
He shook his head, his black hair whipping to each side. "I only tried out because you asked me to, Spirals. I knew I was a klutz."  
  
"No you aren't," she answered, kissing his forehead. "You always were and ever will be my gracefully flying Snips on that Valentine's Dance night."  
  
His blush lit up the whole area. "Dammit, I have to stop smiling!"  
  
She laughed. "True, by ancient tradition the House Master of Slytherin must always look as though he has a pole up his - "  
  
"Martis!"  
  
"If you like, I'll step on your foot."  
  
"Please - OW! Thank you ... "  
  
* * *  
  
Draco Malfoy suffered injuries from the game, and was brought into the common room where Britomartis went about patching him up and healing him (at least he did not get his bones turned to jelly like that idiot Lockhart had done to Potter).  
  
On top of that, Gryffindor won!  
  
"To hell with it!" Britomartis announced. "If it weren't for the Seeker, we would have mopped the floor with them. Post game party, anyway!"  
  
The students cheered; several of the most musically-inclined fetched instruments from their rooms while others moved furniture out of the way for dancing. Somewhere, a bowl of punch materialized as well as a few decorations.  
  
Britomartis was seated on the couch where Draco was lain out, himself half conscious of his surroundings.  
  
Snookie-poo was picked up and danced with, which she did not mind.  
  
Severus Snape hated these house parties; even back when he was a kid he could not stand teenagers being teenagers. Yet, he could not discourage it, either - even if it did not appear to be the case, he wanted them to be normal teenagers and enjoy themselves.  
  
So, he sat quietly in a corner and read, keeping one eye on the party to make sure nothing basely illegal was transpiring. (Refined illegality, on the other hand, would probably earn a commendation of some sort ... at least a few extra house points.)  
  
Although memories of a previous party of twenty years ago brought a smirk to his face, recalling one Slytherin Quidditch victory resulting in quite a noisy, boisterous frolic that included illegal transformation of water into rum, Lucius Malfoy waking up in a frilly pink dress, and several of the Gryffie being stapled to the ceiling of the common room. They lost four hundred points for that blow-out, making them lose the House Cup, but it was the talk of Hogwarts for five years.  
  
Severus remembered Britomartis had shown up at the party dressed in one of her native gowns ... an almost sheer turquoise sheath outlining her blossoming body ...  
  
He glanced up, seeing her taking care of Draco amid the party, wearing a more conservative turquoise gown, but now showing off a mature, womanly body with gorgeous curves ...  
  
'Why would she want an ugly, greasy, hooked-nosed, pathetic git like you?' he asked himself.  
  
Indeed, why at all?  
  
Twenty years ago, if anyone had told him he would be considering his friend 'Spirals' Vox as more than a friend, he would have hexed them past their next three lifetimes.  
  
But now ...  
  
He slammed the book shut and got up. Approaching her, he placed his hand on her shoulder and leaned close to talk to her. "I'm going to my rooms, Martis," he said. "I'd appreciate it if the mess gets cleaned up by the students themselves."  
  
"No problem, Severus," she answered, a flirtatious chuckle edging her voice. "Mind if I join you later?"  
  
"If it's for anything illicit - "  
  
Draco Malfoy's eyes snapped open. "Get your hands off of her!" He sat up and kicked his House Master away. "I know what you're doing, Snape!" the boy spat. "You're trying to enchant Professor Vox! But I won't let you! I claim her as mine!"  
  
"I beg your pardon?" she asked, wide-eyed.  
  
"You're mine, Britomartis Vox! I claim you!"  
  
Britomartis casually swatted Draco, sending him crashing back down on the couch. Snape picked the boy up by the front of his green Quidditch uniform, the coldness of thirty-five years of studied darkness filling his body and overflowing into the room, making the other students pause in terror.  
  
"Do not," Severus Snape intoned in a chill whisper, his teeth bared in a quiet snarl. "Ever strike me again. And for your information, any enchantments put upon Professor Vox will meet with my resentment and wrath. You will be in so much detention for this, you will never see the light of day ever again." He pulled the boy closer, their noses touching. "Do I make myself clear?"  
  
Draco nodded, his eyes wide in panic and fear, as the holy terror he felt for his House Master had bubbled at last now that he looked into those black eyes and into hell.  
  
Britomartis' hand rested on Severus' wrist. "Let him go, Professor Snape. He's wet himself already."  
  
The House Master left the room, his black robe billowing behind him like a large pair of bat wings.  
  
Heads turned toward the House Mother. Britomartis pushed her sunglasses back up on her face. "Well, children, it's late, and we need to clean up. Prefects, organize the others into clean up teams, I'll be back in a moment. Hopefully, I'll calm Professor Snape down enough so you guys won't have to walk on eggshells for the next couple of days." She glanced down at the semi-shocked Draco. "Mr. Malfoy, I'll talk with you later."  
  
She left the common room and eventually the dorms, climbing up the narrow stairways of the classroom building to the conversation room with the stained glass roof.  
  
He was there, just as she expected. "All right, Snips, what's eating you?"  
  
He turned to her, his hair plastered to his face. "I almost killed him."  
  
Britomartis shrugged, still hanging in the cubbyhole entrance. "It's nothing to kill him over. Enchantments and nonsense, what a load of - "  
  
"It's not that, Martis," he said quietly as he turned his face away. "Hell, I don't know what it is."  
  
She stared at him for a long moment, the air around them seemed to be completely still save for the random flickering of the lantern light.  
  
The silence was broken by a string of hysterical giggles from Britomartis.  
  
Severus found it annoying how long she laughed. "What is it?"  
  
She tried to reign in the laughter, only to have to stop and continue giggling. Eventually, it calmed down into a large grin. "Oh, Snips! You're upset because the little Nazi tried to claim me!" She climbed up into the room and sat next to him. "Snips, I never knew you cared - "  
  
"Martis!"  
  
The grin left and she shook her head. "Severus, if you have a problem with snot-nosed twelve-year-olds trying to claim me, maybe you should claim me instead. You know, I could live in your rooms and wear a collar and leash - "  
  
"BRITOMARTIS!" he roared.  
  
She continued on without pausing, "True, they probably expect the House Master and Mother to be more discreet." She leaned back against the stone wall, looking up at the stained glass roof through her sunglasses. "You've kissed me on two occasions. I cannot continue to ignore that."  
  
He looked down at the floor. "I'm more confused about it than you are."  
  
"Well, you win that award."  
  
Severus looked up at her. "Then can you tell me what I'm not understanding?"  
  
Britomartis gazed at him. Less then ten minutes ago he was hell incarnate, terrorizing a student, instilling fear into everyone around him as the House Master of Slytherin. Now he was curled up, drowning in his black robe, his long black hair hanging in his face, looking like the teenager she remembered him being when they climbed up here to talk.  
  
They should have had this talk twenty years ago, not now. Not now after she had loved and married and birthed her own children and lost all of them. Not now with twenty years of bitterness and darkness in his soul. Not now when both were professors and authorities in the House of Slytherin.  
  
The past cannot be altered. It was not permitted.  
  
The future can be molded in the moment.  
  
Would it even work? Would it be like Filch and Mrs. Norris? Or not even rumors touching upon it like Albus Dumbledore and Minerva McGonagall?  
  
It was not like affairs within the faculty had never happened before in the thousand year history of Hogwarts.  
  
"I'll leave if you want me to."  
  
"No, don't leave!" He twirled around, embracing her, his black robe around both of them and his face before hers, his hair brushing against her cheeks. "I lost you once, I refuse to let you go again."  
  
She leaned forward, brushing his hair aside, and kissed him gently, her tongue tracing over his lips as she inhaled his scents of soap, potions, and his own muskiness. He shook in response, causing her to pull him down beside her as she stroked his hair and face.  
  
"I'm scared to death," he whispered.  
  
Britomartis nodded. "We need to get back. The children ... "  
  
Both were silent for several moments.  
  
"Yes," Severus agreed, now more in control. "We must." 


	9. Ch 9 Just Talking to Snakes

Chapter 9 – Just Talking to Snakes  
  
Draco Malfoy, two days lucid, was summoned to Professor Vox's office.  
  
He brushed his hair back, inhaled deeply, and entered her office with a heavy heart.  
  
Professor Britomartis Vox was at her desk, writing something. She was still beautiful, the turquoise gown draping about her curvy body and her ash blonde bob brushing against the tops of her shoulder. Sunglasses still on, and the snake laying comfortably around her neck.  
  
The room itself was a study in Goddess-centric coziness. The stone walls were draped with sheer materials featuring gold snakes, double-axes, and spirals. Her desk was large, black lacquered, piled with books, candle holders, stones - one end held a bronze statue of a Snake Goddess. Bookshelves behind the desk held more books, larger semi-precious rocks, and more candles. The stained glass window had an altar before it, covered in magical tools he had never seen before.  
  
She seemed to take her cult magic seriously.  
  
"You wished to see me, Professor?"  
  
She looked, her mouth set into a thin line. "Yes, Mr. Malfoy. Please sit."  
  
He sat in the chair in front of her desk, waiting for her to speak.  
  
Britomartis got up, rounding the desk to lean against it in front of Draco. "Well, Mr. Malfoy. Your housemates have decided that your proclamation of claiming me is the result of a concussion, and that you weren't in your right mind when you did it - " He opened his mouth, but she raised her hand. " - Your reputation as a cold-hearted little Nazi is still intact." Her expression became even more neutral, which irritated Draco. "Now, down to business ... why did you strike your House Master?"  
  
Draco Malfoy slid down in his chair, not wanting to look back at the blackness of her sunglasses. "Defending you."  
  
"From what?"  
  
"Snape."  
  
"Why?"  
  
He looked up. "You deserve better than that coward. My father said he was such a lowly, freaky, weakling back in school, that you - two years younger than all of them - had to come to his rescue."  
  
She broke into laughter. "And you - a snotty little Nazi of a twelve-year- old who hasn't dropped 'em yet - is more worthy?" She stopped laughing, her mouth neutral again. "Yes, Professor Snape and I were friends - best friends - I was the only real friend he had. Even your father - the great Lucy Malfoy and Slytherin Brother to Severus Snape - was not as good as friend as I was."  
  
"Weakness is not acceptable for a Slytherin."  
  
"Neither is abandoning one's brothers and sisters." She crossed her arms, the snake rearranging itself around her shoulders. "It's none of your business of our past, to be completely honest. And it's certainly none of your business of our relationship now."  
  
Draco's eyes widened, his mouth gaping open in shock. "You mean - er - I - he - "  
  
She leaned close. "None of your business." She pulled back. "And blackmail won't work, either - I've nothing to hide and neither does Professor Snape, so you can tell anyone you want what you think is going on. You're a little punk, just like your father - and I will relish the day you discover the world does not revolve around you and your obsessions."  
  
He frowned. "May I go now?"  
  
"One more thing." She cupped his chin. "If you try to use any charms, spells, or enchantments on me, I will personally break your arms and legs and make sure Nurse Pomfrey does not heal you up or administer painkillers of any sort." She smiled a Slytherin-style cold smirk. "Do we have an understanding, Mr. Malfoy?"  
  
He nodded his head in her hand, and she released him.  
  
"Dismissed."  
  
He scrambled out, shutting her office door, and leaned against the hallway wall.  
  
The nice one was over with. Now he had to serve detention with Professor Snape.  
  
Who would not be nice enough to break his arms and legs.  
  
* * *  
  
December flew by quietly. It appeared the attacks were over with. However, whispers echoed, circulated around the school, their messages never dying down ... is it Harry Potter? Is it someone in Slytherin? Has the Chamber been opened before?  
  
It was after a faculty meeting (of which Professor Flitwick caught Britomartis and Severus holding hands under the table but did not say a word - only grinned in that way that fae creatures do) that Britomartis had discovered something odd running past her in the hallways of Slytherin House.  
  
Spinning right around, she noted the retreating figures of Draco Malfoy's goons Crabbe and Goyle - one with messy dark hair, the other with a shock of red hair.  
  
Leaping across the area between herself and the figures, she landed right behind them, placing her long green-nailed fingers over their heads. "Hello ... boys ... " They shrieked in terror, frozen to the spot. Now she knew this was Harry Potter and Ron Weasley with a Polyjuice Spell wearing off them. "And what are you doing in Slytherin dorms, pray tell?"  
  
"Uh, we were trying to pick up Slytherin girls?" Ron suggested. "And figured we had a better chance as Crabbe and Goyle?"  
  
"No go, and you know it."  
  
Harry turned around under her hand. "We just wanted information about the Chamber of Secrets, ma'am, and - "  
  
She released their heads. "Well, why didn't you say so? Although there's damned little you'll find out here."  
  
Harry put his glasses back on. "Actually, we found out a lot from Malfoy."  
  
"Yes," she acknowledged. "He always did have a hole in his lip. Similar to the one his father had in his head."  
  
Harry grinned. "Is there anything else you can offer us?"  
  
She shook her head. "I didn't find out about it until the attacks started." She gazed down at them. "Mr. Potter, I do suggest you watch yourself from now on. No one has forgotten your use of Parsel-tongue."  
  
His expression became somber. "You work with snakes." He indicated Snookie-poo who was currently trying to crawl around his small shoulders. Ron whimpered in fright from the snake's tail flickering against his chin. "You know about them."  
  
"A bit. Why do you ask?"  
  
"Do all snakes recognize Parsel-tongue?"  
  
She nodded. "From what I understand, it's a unified language among the serpents - garter snakes, cobras, pythons, rattlers, sea serpents, basilisks, and some species of dragons - "  
  
"Martis," Professor Snape's voice called down the hall.  
  
"Get going," she whispered. "I won't tell anyone you've been here."  
  
"Thanks, Professor Vox," Harry whispered as he handed Snookie-poo back to her. Both boys ran off down the hall just before Severus rounded the corner.  
  
"I thought I heard you speaking to someone," he commented.  
  
"A house-elf," she answered, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Now, Severus, do you think the children will miss us if we disappear to our conversation room for a couple of hours?"  
  
He smiled, drawing his robe around her. "For merely conversation, Martis?"  
  
"Among other things." She kissed him.  
  
"Not yet." He pulled away and placed a hand on her cheek. "Not yet."  
  
"I'll wait as long as you want, my love." 


	10. Ch 10 More Attacks

Chapter 10 – More Attacks  
  
Three attacks in less than a month after students returned from winter holidays.  
  
The Quidditch match was canceled and a staff meeting was called.  
  
Britomartis was worried now. It was no longer random. Students lives were definitely in danger. Were her earth magics comparable to the dark arts in this instance?  
  
And Gilderoy Lockhart's leers toward her during the meeting have been grating on her nerves.  
  
"I have an announcement," Professor Snape stated as he and Britomartis entered the Slytherin common room, their robes settling around them. "Until further notice, due to the recent attacks, all students are to be in their dorms by six o'clock. They will also be escorted to classes by teachers and staff." He looked up around the room, his hands gripping the edges of his robe as he folded his arms. "Any questions?"  
  
Everyone shook their heads quietly, save for one of the lower-class girls. "Will the school be shut down?"  
  
The House Master and Mother looked at each other. "We don't know," Britomartis answered.  
  
"Not if I can help it," Snape said, his voice almost growling.  
  
The restrained ferocity seemed to inspire the Slytherin youth even as - or because - it sent shivers down their spines.  
  
As the students dispersed, Britomartis commented in a low voice, "You know your audience."  
  
"Much of being a Slytherin is projecting the proper front," he commented dryly. "Your forthright honesty always served you in poor stead here."  
  
She giggled. "Your snarling was very ... arousing." She rubbed his arm through his sleeve.  
  
Snape was momentarily paralyzed, then decided to investigate something on the opposite side of the campus as quickly as humanly possible.  
  
She sighed as he left. Courtship was slow ... but should it have to be this slow?  
  
* * *  
  
Things were getting dire.  
  
Rubeus Hagrid had been arrested in connection with the Chamber of Secrets.  
  
Albus Dumbledore had been pulled from his position of Headmaster of the school.  
  
Students could not walk the halls at night.  
  
Snookie-poo had taken ill for some mysterious reason.  
  
And Lucius Malfoy had showed up in Slytherin House late one night, threatening to pull Snape and Vox from their posts if they did not 'straighten up'.  
  
"Straighten up?" Britomartis hissed.  
  
Malfoy poked her in the stomach with the head of his cane. "Watch it, Vox. You were always the troublemaker of Slytherin - honesty, compassion, love. Those are not the qualities of Slytherin."  
  
"So why bring up ancient history?" she retorted. "Do you still fear to hear such things from a Pure Blood?" She spat. "Lucius, you're the same as you've always been - a conniving, weasely, petty, self-righteous, pole- up-your-arse sot who humps his sister!"  
  
Malfoy raised his cane, nostrils flaring and face as white as a sheet. Britomartis crossed her fingers into open lattice-work, her hands radiating golden energy.  
  
Severus Snape stepped between them. "STOP THAT! I will not have wizards battling in my House!"  
  
Malfoy lowered his cane. "I will not waste magic on such a lowly creature as you, Vox."  
  
She darted her tongue out to lick her lips. "Pity. You never had enough balls to even step on cockroaches because you were afraid of them. Perfect irony."  
  
"Stop that, Martis!" Severus demanded, pressing her back.  
  
Malfoy sneered. "Yes, ironic. This time Snips is protecting Spirals, the cowering squire rescuing the ill-mannered damsel in distress."  
  
Britomartis appeared over Severus' shoulder. "Better than a Malfoy in the dress. You still got that little pink number ... LUCY?"  
  
"And what was that rumor of why you had to leave?" Malfoy snarled. "Because you were pregnant with his child?"  
  
"I must ask you to leave," Snape stated coldly.  
  
Lucius Malfoy pulled back, a smug smirk plastered across his fine face. "I might then. But one more thing before I go." He leaned forward, his cane lifting up Britomartis' chin. "Everyone knows Death Eaters killed your lovely little family - ever wonder who those Death Eaters were?"  
  
He grasped Severus Snape's left arm, ripping the sleeve down with his manicured nails and drawing blood.  
  
The Dark Mark stood out against his pale arm, contrasting like ink on a white china plate.  
  
Severus snarled, his hand reaching out to enclose over Lucius' neck. The aristocrat danced out of his reach -  
  
And Snape was slammed through one of the stained glass windows of Slytherin House.  
  
Britomartis, her body outlined in golden light and spiraled with silver energy, screamed the shriek of pain and rage of a vengeful mother. Without effort, she leapt up to the window and chased after Professor Severus Snape.  
  
Lucius Malfoy wiped his hands of Snape's blood with a handkerchief, chuckling to himself, before he left Slytherin House.  
  
â€¢ * * 


	11. Ch 11 Wrath of the Goddess

Chapter 11 – Wrath of the Goddess  
  
"MURDERER!" Britomartis Vox roared.  
  
"Martis!" Severus Snape raised his arms before his face.  
  
A force blast sent him flying across the quad and into the side of a classroom building. He fell to the ground, forcing himself up on his hands and knees. His robe was shredded and his clothes were now smoldering from the fiery blast.  
  
"SHUT UP!" She clutched her hands together, which began to glow brighter. "I gave you everything, nurtured you, cared for you, and began to love you! And it was YOU WHO MURDERED MY FAMILY!"  
  
Her sunglasses slipped off her face, showing green eyes glowing with too- earthly power, as the ground below her feet shimmered and yielded its energy to her. This was the Earth Energy, the earth magics - and no light or dark arts could hold a candle to the power of the living Earth itself.  
  
"I was not a Death Eater when your family was killed!" he responded, shielding his head.  
  
A force blast tore up the ground toward him, the dirt grabbing him and swinging him around. "BRITOMARTIS!" he shrieked.  
  
She slashed her hands down, crashing him into the fountain. Severus raised his head, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth with the remains of his right sleeve. He lay in the shredded marble of the fountain, feeling every muscle in his body scream in pain and demand to get up and defend himself.  
  
'No, I won't fight back.'  
  
He forced himself up on his knees. "Martis, please ... listen to me - "  
  
Another blast sent him end-over-end over the building, landing on the stone walkway to the Great Hall.  
  
Britomartis hopped up on the roof of the building, looking down at him. "Listen to you?! A creature from the pack that murdered my family begging to be listened to??" Her robe spread out as she descended to the ground. "I have waited five years to get my hands on one of you - "  
  
Severus inhaled deeply, then lay back on the ground, facing up, his limbs stretched outward, his hair spread over the ground. "Then kill me, Martis! Allow me to die so I won't carry the Mark anymore! Kill me! KILL ME!!!"  
  
A golden double-axe materialized in her hand, her chin quivering, and liquid spilling over her eyelids and down her face.  
  
He closed his eyes, whispering, "Kill me, end this, and free me from this hell, save me one more time, my Martis ... "  
  
When the axe-blow never came, he opened his eyes and found her collapsed next to him, sobbing hysterically. Albus Dumbledore was beside her, his old gnarled hand on her shoulder. The double-axe was gone, the golden glow no longer around her body.  
  
"Why did you stop her?" Snape demanded.  
  
Dumbledore shook his head. "She stopped herself, Severus." He hugged the woman's shoulders. "Britomartis ... there are some things that I must explain to you." He offered his other hand to Severus. "Can you walk, son?"  
  
Severus nodded, uneasily getting up, then falling back to the ground, out cold.  
  
Dumbledore inhaled, patting Britomartis' back. "My poor children."  
  
* * *  
  
It had been two days since that night.  
  
Severus Snape awoke in the infirmary, his eyes focusing on black and green cards set up beside his bed, all of them from his pupils ...  
  
'Get well or we'll kill you, sir.'  
  
'We miss you yelling at us in class.'  
  
'Come back - it's boring in potions class!'  
  
'We love you, Professor Snape - NOT!'  
  
He groaned, feeling the bruises all over his body. Martis gave him quite a beating, and she had every right to.  
  
"You're awake," her voice said softly.  
  
He turned his head, finding her entering the room and sitting next to his bed.  
  
He automatically recoiled.  
  
Britomartis bit her lip. Her green eyes were normal now, haunted with old and new pains. "Professor Dumbledore explained what he could," she said, her voice quietly echoing over the room. "He said ... he said you became lost after you graduated, and had joined the Evil One ... then came back ... "  
  
Severus looked down at the foot of the hospital bed. "It was Dumbledore who sent me down that path." He paused, gathering his thoughts. "You had left me. I could have lived with that, even with the Marauders. But then ... Sirius Black sent me to the Shrieking Shack under the Whomping Willow and I found out Remus Lupin was a werewolf."  
  
"Great Mother," she whispered.  
  
"He tried to kill me. Then ... " His lips curled into a bitter frown. "James Potter of all people saved me from Lupin. I owed him. And the final break - Dumbledore telling me to forget the whole thing and allowing those monsters off the hook." He looked up at her, his black hair in his face. "Losing you, losing my dignity, losing respect, losing the one person whom I thought wanted me as his own son - I had no where else to go. The Dark Lord offered me a position." His voice began to tremble and his eyes filled with remembered horror. "My talent with potions would be useful ... but he wanted more ... " His black eyes glazed, looking down at the sheets again. "I did dark things ... horrible things ... things that even the mention of would taint those around me ... and I ran. I failed yet again. I failed at being evil." His black eyes became normal, now glittering with tears he could not shed. "I hid and ran for months, until I returned here ... Despite everything, despite what I've done - what I've become - " he raised his bandaged arm with the Dark Mark. " - he took me back and treated me with more respect than I deserved." He looked up at her. "He made me Potions Master when Professor Sartoris retired, then House Master a few years ago." He inhaled deeply. "I was not a Death Eater when you ... lost your family. I left because of things like that." He paused. "Oh, Gods, Martis ... I didn't want you to know ... That I failed you, that I fell into darkness, that I was once part of the pack that - that ... "  
  
Severus broke into tears, laying his head back on the pillows and squeezing his eyes shut. He did not expect her to gently wipe the tears from his eyes nor settle on the bed next to him, her breath warm on his face.  
  
"Severus."  
  
He opened his eyes, gazing back into her green eyes ... beautiful moss green eyes with streaks of gold running through the green. "Martis?"  
  
"When I ... you didn't fight back. You didn't even defend yourself. You allowed me to beat you mercilessly."  
  
"How could I?" he answered. "You were in righteous fury, and you had every reason to be."  
  
"But it was for the wrong reasons." She sat up, caressing his hair out of his face. "I've spent the last two days searching through my mind and soul and looking at everything through every possible angle and view point."  
  
"And?"  
  
Severus found himself holding his breath, ready for disappointment, ready for darkness to descend upon his life once again.  
  
"You're not losing me this time."  
  
He exhaled loudly, a smile of relief crossing his face.  
  
"If you can forgive my leaving ... then I can accept your past." She swallowed. "You came back. Those in true darkness would not. They would stay in it and fester and kill their souls. You found your way back to light. It's for that reason I know where your heart is and why I wish to stay."  
  
Severus forced himself up, pulling Britomartis into his bandaged arms and kissing her deeply, expressing everything from relief to love in the embrace.  
  
He suddenly pulled back. "The Chamber - and the monster - "  
  
"All taken care of," she assured him. "Young Mr. Potter saved the day and the girl in distress." She brushed his hair back from his face. "The victims are recovering, the monster is dead." She smiled a brilliant smile. "And the best news of all - Goldilocks Lunkhead had his mind flushed. He's a babbling loon."  
  
Severus Snape broke into laughter. "That's the best news I've heard yet!" He pulled her into another kiss. "Besides keeping you."  
  
Britomartis giggled. "Snips and Spirals are back together again."  
  
"And nothing's keeping them apart this time." He kissed her again, this time a long, slow, moist kiss.  
  
Albus Dumbledore turned from the door of the infirmary where his 'children' had found each other at last, smiling to himself.  
  
Next to him, Minerva McGonagall knotted her brows. "But, why, Albus?"  
  
He inhaled. "Because, Minerva, Severus needs all the strength he can get when ... " His smile became sad. "When he's ready."  
  
She nodded. "Light cuts through darkness."  
  
"Exactly."  
  
-End- 


End file.
